The Hidden Alpha II:Vengeance
by strike3youdie
Summary: When Anna escapes from Binghamton, she sets in motion a chain of events that ends in a final confrontation where Dr. Rosen will be forced to chose between the son he left behind or the duty he has devoted his life to.
1. Aftermath

_Gary lay dying, feeling a rush of blood exiting his body. He wanted to stop it, but he felt numb, paralyzed. Then Dr. Rosen told Gary about his father, and he began to feel a warm feeling inside him. He felt comfortable, almost like he could accept the death in front of him. He was taken back, back to a time he couldn't remember. He smelled his mother's peanut butter and chocolate-chip cookies, the ones she made him when he had a bad day at school. When he came home crying because of the kids at school calling him "freak". _

_They would never understand. _

_No one would ever understand, except for the father he was being told about. He glimpsed the face of the angel hovering over him, felt the warmth of his voice, the feel of his hands as he tended to his wounds. He felt life coming back into his body, felt death loosening his grip. He felt a burst of fiery heat enter his body. It wouldn't stop. It burned. He almost screamed out, but he had more control than that. Eventually it stopped, and he felt great. He came back into his senses hearing Dr. Rosen's words._

"_I am a transducer. And your father."_

_That night, though he didn't know if it was because of the peace of finding his father or the fact that he wasn't being assaulted by the signals, he slept soundly that night, filled with anticipation for the morning. _

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T H R E E D A Y S L A T E R

When Gary woke up in the morning, he went immediately downstairs. He half-expected Dr. Rosen to be sitting on the sofa, waiting to take Gary to the office. Instead, he found his mother. He sat down next to her.

"Mom?"

She looked in his direction.

"Gary, I'm sorry for not telling you about Dr. Rosen being your father. I just didn't want to risk him rejecting you. You don't need any more problems in your life."

She leaned in close, wrapping her arms around him. She was sobbing. Gary patted her on the back reassuringly.

"Speaking of which, where is Dr. Rosen?"

"He went home late last night. He said to tell you he'll be here at the same time that he usually is. You better go get ready."

Gary did so. It took him a while to get used to not having the signals "up in his grill", but he didn't care. Dr. Rosen had told him that when they came back he would teach him how to turn them on and off at will. He was looking forward to it. He embraced the idea of not being constantly shown all of the signals that had troubled him for his whole life. He didn't care what it took, what he'd have to sacrifice, he wanted some peace.

From outside, a car horn beeped. It was Dr. Rosen, probably with Rachel.

He gave his mother a quick kiss. Then he ran out to the van, heaving open the door and jumping inside. Rachel was sitting in the front seat. She looked him over with curiosity. "You got your jacket from Cameron?" she asked. Gary looked down. He forgot he had put on the leather jacket with the big **G** he had gotten from Cameron two days ago. He reached out the sleeve to Rachel.

"It's new. Touch it."

Rachel ran her hand over the jacket, no doubt feeling all of the little individual fibers, smelling the musky leather smell. She held her hand on it for a moment. She closed her eyes, going into what looked like some sort of meditative state. Then she removed her hand, saying, "That is a very fine jacket. You are a lucky guy." Gary couldn't think of anything to say, so he just smiled. In the front seat, Dr. Rosen leaned out the window, giving Gary's mom a quick kiss. Gary wasn't sure if it was a goodbye kiss or a love kiss. Probably a bit of both.

Gary's mom went back inside the house, and Dr. Rosen peeled the van away from the sidewalk, speeding the van away from the neighborhood.

The ride was quiet. Nobody said a word for half the ride. Then Dr. Rosen got a phone call.

Gary couldn't pick up the call's signal, but it sounded important. Dr. Rosen was saying a lot of "are you sure?" and "how?". Eventually he hung up the phone and turned down a road that they didn't normally take.

Rachel eyed Rosen suspiciously. "Where are we going?" Rachel interrogated.

Rosen hesitated a bit before answering. "Binghamton."

Now Gary asked the question. "Why on earth are we going to Binghamton?"

Dr. Rosen didn't answer. He focused on nothing but the road, and began gradually began speeding up a little. He ignored Gary and Rachel's questions, shrugging them off with a mild tinge of annoyance.

Eventually, Rachel got fed up. She grabbed the gear shift between the two front seats, throwing the van into park. Dr. Rosen heaved a sigh, taking his hands off the wheel and turning to look at Rachel.

"Why are we going to Binghamton, Dr. Rosen? Tell us now!" Rachel demanded.

Dr. Rosen sighed again. Then he grabbed the gear shift, throwing it into drive and turning back to the road, saying "Anna escaped."


	2. Investigation

Gary had never been to Binghamton, but now, seeing the desolate-looking building waiting beyond a barbed-wire fence at the end of a long road, he didn't want to go in. He wanted to jump out of the car, run away, go hide in a ditch somewhere. It wasn't the building that troubled him, but rather the reason they were there.

Anna had escaped.

After the way he had betrayed her, he was probably going to be first on her hit list. His stomach turned with thoughts of all the ways that she could get to him. Would she just kill him? Or, perhaps, would she hurt Dr. Rosen?

Gary was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Rosen and Rachel getting out of the car. Rachel saw him still sitting in the car and gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder. With a snap, he came back to reality. He followed Rosen and Rachel for the next fifty feet to the guard tower at the main gate to Binghamton. When they got there, a guard looked at them dubiously. He stepped defensively between them and the gate, raising his assault rifle.

"May I help you?" asked the guard. "What are you doing here?"

Gary went forward, shoving his DCIS badge in the guard's confused face.

"DCIS," Gary told him. "You don't ask the questions, we ask the questions. Let us in or we'll have you arrested."

The guard looked inquisitively at Dr. Rosen. Rosen showed him his Department of Defense badge. The guard motioned to another guard in a booth next to the gate and the gate opened. Dr. Rosen nodded a thank you to the guards and led Gary and Rachel through the gate.

Binghamton was a giant of a facility, 150,000 acres spread across four buildings. The main building, also known as Building 1, housed the reception offices, mess hall, and cells for the non-dangerous patients. Building 2, or The Nut House, housed the solitary confinement rooms for those patients deemed dangerous or criminally insane. Building 3 was the guard's headquarters, housing dorms, the guard's armory, and the guard's cafeteria. Building 4's purpose was unknown, save for a select elite few. The only people allowed in were fifty guards who were sworn to secrecy, Dr. Rosen and any team members he may bring, and the warden at Binghamton, Rosen's good friend Arthur Grant. To all other people at Binghamton, the building was simply known as the Omega Building.

It was quite a walk to the building, and Gary spent all of it looking around him, observing the scenery. It was a nice enough facility, though most buildings were falling into a state of decay. They were the o-so classic red brick structures. A large group of inmates were flashing Gary dirty looks from the Rec Yard, a massive grass area that stretched five-hundred yards behind the main building. Just to show off, Gary flashed his badge.

With time, the group reached the Omega Building. They stood in front of a tall silver door, slightly shorter than the one they had entered Binghamton through. There were no guards outside, just a small console with a glowing screen that said "RETINA SCAN REQUIRED". Below it was a jutted-out sideways dome with a lens, which Dr. Rosen put his right eye up to. A laser flashed across his eye, and the computer screen's display now read "WELCOME, LEE ROSEN. ACCESS GRANTED." With a deep hum, the silver door opened, allowing Rosen, Gary, and Rachel to enter Omega Building.

Omega Building's interior reminded Gary of a hospital. The floors were black and white tiles. The walls were solid white concrete. A seemingly endless hallway stretched before them, with doors lining either side.

A desk was to their right. From a chair behind it, a man approached them. He appeared to be in his late fifties or early sixties. He had a graying bushy beard and scraggly white hair. He was a little on the chubby side, and he wore a black tux with white shirt and red tie.

He grabbed Dr. Rosen's hand and shook it. "Dr. Rosen, old friend, it's so good to see you, though I wish the circumstances weren't so glum." He looked at Gary and Rachel. "Who are these fine young people?"

"They're on my team. Arthur, this is Rachel Pirzad and Gary Bell. Rachel and Gary, this is Arthur Grant, warden here at Binghamton."

Grant shook each of their hands, wishing them hello. Then he led them down the hall, taking them to Anna's cell, which was now empty. Each of the cells lining the hallway had a narrow window with vertical bars in them, no doubt to allow prisoner's to get food. From what little Gary could see of the inside of the cells, they appeared to be lined with some white padding to soundproof and had a bed, table, sink, and toilet.

After five minutes of walking, turning corners, and talking, they arrived at Anna's cell. A cell on either side of the one Grant pointed out to be Anna's were open, and a chunk of concrete lay in front of one.

Gary looked over at Rachel. She was looking around, analyzing the scene with her heightened senses. She focused on a spot on the wall across from Anna's cell, and also a spot on the floor near the concrete. In a moment, she looked at Grant.

"What kind of Alphas were in these two adjoining cells?" she asked.

"The one to Anna's left was a Levitator, and the one to the right was a hyperkinetic," Dr. Rosen explained.

"Were the cell locks picked, or.."

"No," Grant said. "They were unlocked via a key."

Rachel nodded, then I know how she got out. What happened was this: the hyperkinetic to Anna's right got a hold of a chunk of concrete. Then, the Levitator caused a commotion, making a guard come over. When the guard came, the hyperkinetic threw the piece of concrete at the wall at just the right angle, causing it to chip a tiny piece of the wall, and also to bounce and hit the guard in the back of the head. He fell to the floor, creating a spot of blood which it appears that someone _tried_ to clean up. Then, the Levitator levitated the proper keys into each of the three Alpha's cells and turned them, allowing them to exit their cells, where they used the guard's eye to gain access out of the facility and probably stole a car."

Rosen smiled and nodded. "Excellent work, Rachel." With that, Rosen grabbed Arthur Grant and threw him into the concrete wall, where he went limp.

"Dr. Rosen!" Rachel screamed, but it was too late. Rosen reached into his pocket and withdrew some sort of gun. He shot Rachel and Gary in one quick movement. Gary passed out hearing him tell Rachel "I'm not Dr. Rosen."


	3. Awakening

Gary woke up with a pounding headache. His body was sore were the bullet had hit him. He moved his hands around his body, and, seeing that nothing was missing, sat up from his laying position. All around him was a deep darkness. He felt around, but felt nothing of interest.

Overhead, a bunch of industrial-size lights came on, leaving Gary momentarily blind as his eyes adjusted. When he could finally see, he looked around. In front of him was a table. On it was what looked like a fax machine without the paper tray. Attached to it were a bunch of brown packages held on by duct tape. Each of them had a small glowing box attached with a blinking red light. All the little packages were wired to the fax machine display, which Gary looked at. Instead of the usual fax machine display, he saw a display with glowing red LED numbers.

**30:00**

It was a timer, Gary realized with fear. Suddenly, with a glowing comprehension, he realized what he was looking at. It was a bomb, wired to explode as soon as the timer hit all zeroes. Why the timer wasn't counting down Gary didn't know, but what he did know was that he had to escape the room as soon as possible. There was a door in the far corner, which Gary tried in vain to open. After much effort and grunting, he noticed a long orange wire connecting the door lock to the back of the fax machine. That made sense. If he figured out how to disable the bomb, the door would open and he would be able to get out.

To Gary, this was all seeming like a movie he saw one time, one of those really scary and/or violent ones that Gary's mom told him he couldn't watch. It was called SAW, and Gary had had nightmares for days afterwards.

Whoever had come up with this bomb was a technological genius. Gary kind of considered himself a technological genius, but that was because everyone on the team called him a technological genius. He accepted the title, but this complicated contraction was out of his league. He tried to pull off the packs of explosives, which a closer look identified as C4 (ten pounds apiece), but then the blinking red boxes began blinking faster, about to explode.

Just as he was about to lie down and accept his fate, the phone attached to the fax machine/bomb began beeping. It did this for a moment, then a voice began speaking through it. It lacked the monotonous machine voice characteristic of Anna, but instead sounded like a healthy young woman. _New assistant, maybe?_

"Hello, Alphas. I trust you have all woken up and are probably wondering what is going on. As you can see, there is a bomb in the room with you. Each bomb has a different ten-digit kill code. Input the code, and the bomb will shut off and the door will open. Don't worry, the kill code is in the room with all of you, hidden, but reachable if you use your abilities. If you fail, however, and your bomb blows up, you will kill all of the other Alphas, along with yourself. If you input the wrong kill code the first time, you get no second chances, and all of you will die. Try to disable the bomb with a method other than the proper kill code, then you all will die. Attempt to use the phone to call someone, and you all will die. Use the phone keypad to input the code. Oh, and one other thing. I suggest you move as quickly as possible, because poor old Dr. Rosen also has a bomb with him, though his time is considerably longer: two hours. If you all hurry, you can save his life. Every mistake you make, the less time you have to save Dr. Rosen. After you have dismantled your bomb, wait and hope your other team members don't screw up. You will get a phone call when, and if, all the bombs are disabled. Good luck, and time starts now."

Sure enough, when Gary looked at the bomb timer, he saw the countdown had begun.

**30:00**

**29:59**

**29:58**

Fear setting in, Gary attempted to call on his abilities. With much struggle, he finally managed to get the signals to appear. _Long time no see_. His abilities called on, he focused on the fax machine, hoping in vain to see a ten-digit code come to light. Instead of a simple ten-digit number, he got hundreds of numbers: serial numbers, commands, saved phone numbers. Luckily, Gary knew enough to sort between them all, which narrowed his search down to two codes. Carefully, Gary counted the digits. One had eleven digits, the other had ten. Fingers trembling, he typed in the ten-digit code that he had found:

**1123581321**

The timer was down to twenty-five minutes.

If he failed, everyone would fail.

Dr. Rosen would die.

Red Flag would win.

Weighing the consequences carefully, Gary pushed his trembling finger onto the fax machine's enter button.


	4. Secrets

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R O S E N

The world was black. It was like a tunnel, but there was no light at the end. All that was at the end was a mild pain as the anesthetic from the tranquilizer dart gun worked its way into his system. He became numb, unable to move, unable to resist as the man hauled him away. He felt nothing, not the cold tile floor that he was laying on, nor the sting of more anesthetic to keep him under longer. He still remembered that night, the night that may soon cost him his life.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It had started out innocently enough. He had given Sandra a kiss, giving her a message to give to Gary in the morning. Then, with a final "I love you" he got in his van and went home. Once home, he decided to unwind a little. He brewed a bit of his barley coffee and lied comfortably on his couch. From his old record player came the band that he had told Don Wilson about before he died, Children of the Revolution. He felt the music, felt the words that were being sung.

That was how the Red Flag agents found him. Sitting on the couch, drinking some weird-smelling hot drink, some old Japanese-imported music coming from the record player. Dr. Rosen saw them, but just a second too late. He was out in seconds when the tranquilizer entered his body.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Like Gary, Dr. Rosen woke up with a pounding headache. Unlike Gary, he was in a sitting position, strapped to a hard metal chair. His vision was fuzzy. His wrists were chafing from the handcuffs that were keeping him attached to the chair. He couldn't see into the darkness that surrounded him like a blanket, black and absolute. He called out into the black abyss, hoping someone would hear him. When that didn't work, he began thrashing around, the chair clattering and screeching against the hard metal floor. Still, he got nothing. He then resolved to stay calm, cool, and collected.

Taking a deep breath, he called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

From somewhere close by, a female voice said, "Turn them on."

Suddenly, a group of huge lights came on, nearly blinding Dr. Rosen. They were white, and very bright, and left him seeing spots for a few moments. When he could finally see clearly, he looked in front of him. Sitting in a chair, two armed guards at either side, was a woman. She had blond hair, and was wearing a white dress shirt and a pair of black dress pants. Though her look was very different, Dr. Rosen strangely recognized this woman, this woman giving him a smile, the kind of smile a hunter would give to a deer before he shot it.

It was Anna.

Rosen gasped. She was barely recognizable, but it was indeed. The slow, autistic woman with poor motor skills. The one who had tried to kill them many times before. The leader of Red Flag. There was no laptop nearby to translate her sounds, nor anything to make the sounds. Slowly, realization dawned on Rosen. Something had changed with Anna. Now, she could speak, and her motor control skills were good.

"What happened to you, Anna?" Dr. Rosen asked her.

She chuckled a little. "Surprising, isn't it? Well, actually it's quite simple. I have another Alpha ability: I can increase my motor control skills, which in turn increases my ability to speak. Now, I no longer have to make noises to communicate."

Dr. Rosen was in shock. "This is… extraordinary! So, you can talk fluently. Do you still understand every language?"

"Sadly, no. I can increase my motor control skills, but at the price of leaving my other Alpha ability off. I can always switch between them at will."

"So, Anna, it appears you are capable of doing a great many things."

"Oh, I can do much more than that, Dr. Rosen." She motioned to one of her guards. "Play video screens." The guard pulled a remote out of his pocket and pushed a button. Suddenly, a giant white square appeared on a wall next to the two chairs. Then, the white square gave way to five smaller white squares. It looked like security camera footage. Looking closer, Dr. Rosen saw who was on the footage: Rachel, Nina, Hicks, Bill, and Gary.

Oh God. Gary. Dr. Rosen had promised Sandra that he would keep Gary safe and out of harm. From the looks of things, Gary was definitely in harm. Rosen couldn't bear to lose his only child, and with it the trust of his divorced wife. He turned to Anna. "What did you do?" he cried out in rage.

Anna laughed, an evil, coldhearted laugh. "They are all in a room with a ticking timebomb. They have to find the proper code to disable their bomb, or all of them die. And if they all die, then you will eventually die as well. Look at your chest."

Dr. Rosen looked down. What he saw was a vest loaded with pounds and pounds of C4 plastic explosives. A red LED timer glared up at him, counting down.

**1:56:47**

**1:56:46**

**1:56:45**

He looked back up at Anna, whose attention was fixated on the video screens. Dr. Rosen watched with her. On Hicks' screen, he was jumping on and off of a small maze of walls, trying in vain to reach a piece of paper attached to the ceiling. Rachel was staring at a spot on the floor, where the code was most likely carved in a microscopic size. Bill was channeling his strength to break through marked spots on the wall. Nina was pushing a half-dead man in the room with her. And Gary was sorting through signals and facing the bomb, which looked strangely like a fax machine. Eventually, all five of his Alphas had typed a code into a key pad, and then began pacing the room, hoping everyone else was successful.

Anna looked at the screens and chuckled. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a cell phone, saying, "It's time to make an important phone call."


	5. The Second Challenge

Gary was pacing slowly back and forth, trying to get a signal to find out where he was. Unfortunately, nothing was showing up. He must have been too deep into a concrete-lined building. In concrete-lined buildings, it was hard for him to get signals unless he was near a wi-fi router. Of course he couldn't get a signal. Anyone who was smart enough to put him in this room and arm a bomb with a fax machine was smart enough not to give him a place where he could get a signal.

The phone began beeping again. Breaking into the voice took less time this time. It was the same voice that had told them of their challenge earlier.

"Congratulations, Alphas. You have successfully completed the first of three challenges. That means you are one step closer to saving the life of Dr. Rosen. After this phone call, the door will open and you will all be able to leave the rooms you are in. But first, listen to me carefully. Outside the door, there is a table. On this table you will find a box. Open the box, and retrieve the envelope inside. Do NOT open the envelope until I tell you. Also, one of you will have a gun in your box. You are to carry this gun with you, and give it to nobody else. After you have retrieved the contents of your boxes, follow the arrows on the walls to your next challenge. Go off the path, and you will run into a trap, which is unavoidable and will kill you. Complete the challenge at the end of the marked path, and you will know the location of Dr. Rosen. Once you get to the location, you will face the third challenge. Good luck. Oh, and you have one hour and fifty-two minutes to save Dr. Rosen. Get moving."

The call broke up, and the room's door whirred open. Cautiously, Gary stepped through and immediately saw the table. The box on top was small, about the size of a shoebox, made of wood, with a key stuck in the lock for it. Gary approached the box and turned the key to the right. The box popped open. Inside was a small, off-white envelope. Gary picked it up. It was lightweight, almost as if whatever was inside weighed almost nothing. He was about to walk away, but he caught a glimpse of something else in his box. _It can't be_. Sure enough, it was a black handgun. Though every instinct told him not to, he took the gun, shoving it in the pocket of the jacket he still had on. Then he walked down the hall to the next challenge.

The path to the second challenge was relatively short. He had only made two turns before he arrived at a door reading SECOND CHALLENGE in red painted-on letters. He turned the door's knob. He emerged into a round room with four other doors, besides his. There was a table at the center with five chairs. Gary sat in one, waiting for some indication of what he was supposed. A few minutes later, the four other doors opened, revealing Hicks, Nina, Rachel, and Bill. They each sat down in a chair. Soon after, a voice came crackling over the loudspeaker in the room.

"Greetings, Alphas, and welcome to the second challenge. At this time, you are to open each of your envelopes. Each envelope contains a piece of the location puzzle. Put your brains together, and I'm sure you will all figure it out. Good luck."

Glancing at each other, the five Alphas opened their envelopes. Each Alpha had a scrap of paper, torn on the sides where it connected to a larger piece of paper. They passed them around, hoping someone would be able to make sense of them, but none were successful. On each scrap was a section of a blueprint to a building. There was a dot and the name of whose map scrap it was, and a line going off the map.

After the scraps had been passed around, the team members sat and thought. Eventually, Rachel broke the silence.

"Guys, every second we waste sitting here is a second of Dr. Rosen's life that ticks away. We have to think of something. Let's try, oh I don't know, putting the scraps together."

They did so, and when they were done Nina cried out with glee. "Rachel, you were right! Look!"

Gary looked at the newly-produced image, but saw nothing special. It looked like a capital A, but without the tip.

"What does this look like to you, Gary?"

Gary answered honestly. "Part of a letter A," he said.

Nina nodded. "Exactly. And the letter A comes from the Greek letter ALPHA. Don't you guys get it? ALPHA! Look at it this way: Gary was at the bottom left side of the A, Bill was at the bottom right, and Rachel, Hicks, and I were on the center line, spaced apart. Now, that said, what would be the next most logical place to put someone, following the Greek Alpha form?"

Gary raised his hand. "At the tip?" he asked.

"Excellent work, Agent Bell." Gary beamed when Nina called him Agent Bell. "So," Nina continued, "we have to move through the building, get to the metaphorical tip of the Alpha, and then we'll find Dr. Rosen."


	6. The Final Challenge

It took the Alphas a while, but they eventually managed to get a general idea of where they were headed. Getting the direction was one thing. Getting to the location was another. Back and forth they wandered, making right turns and left turns, all the while knowing that every second they made a mistake was another second off Dr. Rosen's life.

Soon, after walking down one hallway for a long period of time, Rachel exclaimed, "I hear heartbeats! Up ahead, in the next corridor to the right." Confidently, the Alphas took said corridor and, to Rachel's satisfaction, a giant metal door marked with the words THE THIRD CHALLENGE. Taped to the door was a tape recorder and a piece of paper saying PLAY ME.

Gary ran up, yanked the recorder off the wall, and pushed the play button. There was a click, and then the same voice that had been talking to them all day spoke again. "Congratulations, Alphas. You have solved the map puzzle. Behind this door awaits the third and final challenge. The door is unlocked, and you may enter. But before you do, there is one catch. Four of you have been given a metal bracelet with a glowing green light. If you enter this room, the light will turn red, and Dr. Rosen's bomb timer will go straight to zero. Kaboom. And then all of you will die. Kaboom. Only one of you may enter this room, and the other four must wait for the challenge to be completed. Goodbye."

Immediately, the five Alphas looked at their wrists. All saw a metal wristband, except for one.

Gary.

Before Gary could protest, the door was opened and he was pushed into the room. Nina closed the door with a reassuring, "You can do this."

And then everything went dark.

Gary fumbled about a bit, and then a bright light came on above him. His eyes adjusted, he looked around. What he saw shocked him. Making up one of the walls was a giant piece of thick glass. And on the other side, sitting across a table from Anna, a bomb strapped to his chest, was Dr. Rosen. Rosen saw Gary too, and he gasped. He saw Anna chuckle, though he couldn't hear her beyond the thick glass. Rosen and Anna talked for a bit, and then Anna spoke into a microphone on her desk. Her voice came through into Gary's little prison.

"Gary. I see you've made it. Now, I know you want to save Dr. Rosen, but first let me explain something: If you do not cooperate with the things I will tell you to do, Rosen will die. Understand? Just give a nod and I'll be satisfied." Begrudgingly, Gary nodded. "Good," Anna continued. "Now, look on the wall behind you. There is a plastic canister and a long tube going into the ceiling. Put that gun you brought with you in it."

Gary pulled out the gun and placed it in the canister. Then, as the canister shot through the tube, he prayed to God he didn't screw up.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R O S E N

The gun came through the tube from underneath the table. Anna picked it up, fingering it in her hand for a moment. Then she cocked it and pointed it at Dr. Rosen. She pulled the trigger. All that Dr. Rosen heard was the clicking of an empty chamber. Anna released the clip, reaching into her pocket and withdrawing a bullet. She loaded the bullet in and replaced the clip in the gun. Then she turned to Dr. Rosen.

"Now, Dr. Rosen," she said malevolently, "We have a challenge to complete. As you can see, there is one bullet in this gun. This bullet could either save your life or end it. It all depends on your choice: me or your forgotten son."

Rosen stared at her blankly. "I'm not following you."

Anna chuckled. "Look on the wall next to the window to Gary's cell. What you see is a switchboard. The switchboard is protected by a sheet of plastic only penetratable by a bullet. If you shoot the switchboard, the glass wall will recede and Gary will be free, at which time he can scan for a signal with the code to your bomb. But, in the time that it takes to get the bomb off of you, I will escape and you will never find me again. I will still be running Red Flag ops, but from a secret headquarters far way from here. But, if you shoot me with your one bullet, the wall will never recede, and your bomb will eventually blow up, with the blast killing you, breaking the glass wall, and killing Gary."

Done talking, Anna slid the gun across the table to Dr. Rosen. Then she looked down at his bomb timer, which now read:

**11:22**

**11:21**

**11:20**

"Make your choice, Dr. Rosen. Time is running out."


	7. Rosen's Choice

Rosen fingered the handgun in his lap, trying to make his choice. He had devoted his life to capturing dangerous Alphas. Here he had a chance to capture the most dangerous Alpha of all. Was he going to let it slip away?

He looked down at the timer. It was slowly ticking away his life.

**11:01**

**11:00**

**10:59**

He dared a look over at Gary. He paced back and forth in his cell, oblivious to the fact that his life lay in the hands of a single bullet. On his next turn, his eyes met Rosen's. They hung there for a moment. It was as if he was saying _Do__what__you__need__to__do._ _I__'__ll__be__okay._ A few moments more of staring, and then Gary turned away, leaving Rosen alone with his thoughts.

Anna was rapping her fingers on the table impatiently. "Well, Dr. Rosen? What are you going to do?"

In one quick movement, Rosen pointed the gun at Anna. She threw her arms up in a mocking surrender. She held them there for a few seconds, then suddenly whipped around, taking a handgun out of her back pocket and, in a sudden movement, aiming and shooting at Rosen.

It took a moment for the pain to sink in. When it did, Rosen glanced down. The bullet had pierced his shoulder, leaving a crimson stain on his white shirt. When he moved his arm, he got a sudden shot of pain throughout his whole body. He analyzed how much the wound was bleeding. It was nothing but a steady gush, not enough to kill him within minutes. But it wasn't the blood that was the problem. His problem was the fact that he had nine-and-a-half minutes before he blew up.

From the side of the room Gary's cell was on, there was a mechanical whirring sound. Rosen and Anna both looked over and saw Gary, charging like a raging ox at Anna. Somehow, he had gotten the door open. Anna raised her handgun to try and shoot him, but Gary was too fast. Anna got tackled to the ground, and her handgun went sliding across the floor. Rosen stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out if he could reach it before Anna overpowered Gary and use it as a weapon. If not as a weapon, then at least as a bargaining chip, a way to secure his freedom.

Rosen was stirred from his daydream by the sound of Anna's fist connecting with the side of Gary's face. The force caused him to fall to the floor.

The time for decisions was over. Moving as fast as he could, Rosen crawled across the floor, stretching his fingers for the handgun. He had barely brushed it when Anna approached him, yanking the gun out of his hands and aiming dead center at Rosen's forehead.

"This time, I won't miss," she promised, as her finger slowly squeezed the trigger…

The sound of a gunshot echoed around the room, reverberating in Rosen's eardrums. Anna stood there for a moment, unmoving like a statue. Rosen waited for the pain to set in, the sign that his time was up. After a few seconds, it still hadn't come. He looked up, just in time to see Anna crumple to the floor, revealing Gary standing confidently behind her, the handgun that had been in Rosen's just minutes before raised.

That was when Rosen knew. Gary had shot Anna. In the time it had taken Anna to walk over to Rosen, Gary had gotten the handgun and then fired, sending a single bullet straight into Anna's chest. Now, Anna lay on the floor in an increasing puddle of blood, her handgun still clutched in her right hand.

It was over. Truly over.

Rosen stood up, wrapping his arms around Gary in a loving embrace. He winced a bit at the pain in his shoulder, but didn't turn away. When the hug was done, he looked Gary in the eye. "The door. How did you-?"

"I don't really know. I saw the panel, and I just focused on it with all I could. Inside my head, I willed it to override and open the door, and it did," Gary explained. "I guess there's another layer to my Alpha ability."

Rosen looked at him, pointing at the bomb on his chest. "Can you-?" He had no sooner finished those words when the timer went dim. The electronic locks on it released, and the device fell from his chest, falling with a thud to the floor.

He was saved.

He was going to live.

It would probably be a while before any of the other Alphas found a way into the room to get Rosen and Gary out, but Rosen didn't care. As long as he was here, and alive, and his son was too, he wouldn't care.

And, after all, they were all Alphas.

They could do anything.

Nothing was impossible.

And the worst was over.


End file.
